Savvy by Ingrid Law
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Book Reviews of Savvy
Book Review: Savoir Faire
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a 50+ female. I read this book with my 12-year old niece. We both thoroughly enjoyed it! Ingrid Law has a wonderful imagination and an ability to really relate with younger readers. I highly recommend the book for youngsters who are transitioning from children's books to teen reads.Book Review: Not a bad start, but room for growth
Summary: 3 Stars
Savvy is not a bad book; far from it. It's just not a book for me. I think that overall, the book was geared towards a younger crowd than I anticipated, and I feel the book tended to be a bit too simplistic. And it suffered from what seems to be a growing annoyance for me: the "charming" kid colloquialisms that are sprinkled on every single page of the book. I get that the books are geared for kids, but when I was younger, I never spoke like the kids do in these books, nor did any of my friends. To me, it almost seems to be talking down to the readers, as if they wouldn't understand the feelings of the characters unless they were put into an easy-to-understand, cute manner. Maybe this is again that the book is geared towards a younger audience than I imagine it should be, and thus is written perfectly for that age group.
What Ingrid Law does a great job of in Savvy is show the strength and importance of family. The book centers around Mibs Beaumont, a twelve-year-old girl who will be turning 13 in two days. What makes her 13th birthday even more special is what makes all the Beaumonts special; that's the day that her savvy will develop. Some savvy's are subtle (like her mother's savvy, which is to be perfect) and some are more violent (like her brother Flash's savvy, which is electricity, or her brother Fish's savvy, who can't live near water for fear of creating another hurricane). The idea of the savvy struck me as being very similar to the development of the powers in mutant children in Marvel Comics' X-Men franchise. I found it interesting to see how Ingrid Law took this same idea and created a non-superhero story out of it. Mibs father is in a car accident 2 days before her birthday, and is hospitalized in the next town over. After her mother and older brother goes to stay with her father, Mibs decides to run away and try to get to the hospital as well, knowing that her as yet undetermined savvy will help him wake up from his coma. She hides on a bus with her brother Fish, their younger brother Samson, and the local preacher's kids, Bobbi and Will.
From here the story develops into a road trip adventure where each of the kids, the bus driver Lester, and Lill (whom they pick up on the side of the road when her car breaks down) learn to be true to themselves and grow into their own person. Ingrid Law does a good job of developing the feelings of each individual character and showing their growth. And while the book has a happy ending, it isn't a perfect happily-ever-after, which I also feel is a strong point for the book; life doesn't always come out just the way you expect it to, and all too often I think that YA books tend to push the idea that it does.
With the few flaws aside (which I feel are really only because I'm obviously not the target audience for this book), Ingrid Law has done an admirable job on her first book, Savvy.
Book Review: A good tale, but the author needs to trust herself (and us!)
Summary: 3 Stars
The idea behind Savvy is pitch-perfect: a family where the leap from childhood into the wild unknown of adulthood is even wilder and more unknown than usual. You hit adolescence in this family, and you acquire a "savvy" -- a mysterious, magical talent. A very specific, and often very strange one. (I loved the Grandma who could save radio broadcasts in canning jars.) The characters are charming and individual, the situations and dialog are funny...so why only three stars?
I don't think I've ever read a book where a young character stops more times to suddenly contemplate at heartfelt length that her life has changed, or that she's growing up, or that such-and-such a moment has some special meaning that she'll always remember and she'll never be the same. It bogs down the narrative terribly. Worse yet, it's unnecessary. We get it! It's a coming of age story! We understand why these moments are important, and we see the characters change and grow. But to be constantly told what we're seeing kills the suspension of disbelief, not to mention the light, funny rhythm of the storytelling. I hope this obviously talented writer will trust herself and her readers a little more next time around.
Book Review: Good but not award worthy
Summary: 3 Stars
I really did enjoy reading Savvy, once I got into the story. I can see how it might be a fun book for young girls to read. However I agree with some of the other reviews out there that the language is a bit "dumbed down" or the fact that the characters in the book don't use everyday language and that some of the kids reading the book now-a-days might not really connect with that. However Ingrid Law does use colorful was to explain feelings even if our kids don't express their thoughts and feelings that way. I'm still not sure why it won and award, I didn't think it was THAT great of a book. Better than Harry Potter, I don't agree but then again I'm a 29 year old woman and not a 13 year old girl. I still look forward to reading about adventures from some of the other characters (especially the youngest brother). Ingrid leaves the book endin with possibilities for all of the other characters to develop into other books!Book Review: Cute characters and nice writing... but questionable messages
Summary: 3 Stars
I quite liked the premise of this story, with the savvies and all. And I liked the characters with their whimsical names. I especially liked Mibs's voice as she told the story.
However, I am a little uneasy with some of the messages in this book. Naive children stowing away in the back of a bus driven by a single, strange man? Were the Beaumont kids never taught about stranger danger? But something that happened on the second-to-last page of the book just goes to show that these parents aren't very responsible, anyway, so it kind of makes sense that they wouldn't have taught their kids much.
This is one of those books that I'd recommend to teens or adults, simply because the writing and narration are interesting and colourful. I'd be hesitant to recommend it to its target audience, though, because of some of the messages.